Long-Tailed Chinchilla

Long-Tailed Chinchilla
Character Data
Also known as: Chinchilla Japanese Name: チンチラ Romanised Name: Chinchira First Featured in: Kemono Friends (2015 Game)
Animal Data
Scientific Name: Chinchilla lanigera Distribution: South America Diet: Omnivore Average Lifespan in the Wild: 10 years Read More: Long-tailed chinchilla Conservation Status:

Long-Tailed Chinchilla​

Pavilion​

KF3​

Nexon Game​

Gallery

The Long-Tailed Chinchilla is a type of mammal Friend that debuted in the original Kemono Friends mobile game. Her redesign was revealed alongside Alpine Marmot's debut in the January 2020 issue of Shonen Ace. She has since appeared in the mobile games Kemono Friends Pavilion and Kemono Friends 3.

Appearance

In her old design, Long-tailed Chinchilla had a very sweet appearance: she had short hair in a choppy bob cut with varying shades of gray. Her ears were rather small and oval-shaped, and her eyes were dark gray with a blue spot at the bottom. The outfit was fairly simple, with a sailor-esque white shirt with blue trim on the sleeves and a blue pleated skirt. A fluffy gray collar accented the shirt alongside a tiny yellow string bow. Her arms and legs seemed to have very long gloves and stockings that started as a dark gray that gradients into a white at the ends. The tail was short and gray with a dark gray tip. Lastly, she had white sneakers with blue ribbons.

In her new design, Long-tailed Chinchilla seems a bit more tomboyish; her hair is still on the shorter side but now has white tips to accent the warm gray. Her ears are much bigger and rounded, like the real life animal. The eyes are more angled, giving her a more mischievous look, and are now a dark brown. When she smiles, you can see her teeth are more pronounced, likely imitating a rodent's prominent front teeth. The shirt is now a solid white dress shirt with Juliet sleeves, and has a bright blue bow on the collar. Chinchilla now dons a pair of suspender shorts, light gray in the front and dark gray in the back, which are slightly too big on her. The leggings have changed to solid white. She's also changed her sneakers for white ankle boots, with a black toe piece and blue strings. Lastly, her tail is much puffier and now is dark gray with a single white stripe down the middle.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role

In Real Life

Long-tailed chinchilla in a domestic setting. Photo by Trurl66, 2007.

The Long-tailed Chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) is a rodent from the genus Chinchilla. Hailing from Chile, they are known for their luxuriously soft fur. Domestic chinchillas are said to be descended from the long-tailed chinchilla.

Chinchillas are rather small animals; males typically weigh 369–493 g (13.0–17.4 oz.) while females weigh 379–450 g (13.4–15.9 oz.). On the other hand, domesticated ones are bigger, with males being up to 600 g (21 oz.) and females being 800 g (28 oz.).

The most distinct feature of the Chinchilla is it's silky soft coat. Surprisingly, they do not have fur- they have hair. The hair is 2–4 cm (0.79–1.57 in.) long and each individual hair follicle can have up to 75 hairs. Wild chinchillas originally had a mottled yellow-gray coat, though selective breeding has given them a wider variety of colors. Dominant colors include beige, white, and ebony. The recessive colors include sapphire, violet, charcoal, and velvet.

A young wild Chilean chinchilla (circa 2006). Photo by Jaime E. Jimenez, Laboratorio de Ecología, Universidad de Los Lagos.

Wild Long-tailed Chinchillas live in burrows or rock crevices in the Andes Mountain range of Northern Chile. They can be found as high as 3,000 to 5,000 meters (9,800 to 16,400 ft.). Because they live in the mountain range, they have a very harsh climate. Daytime summer temperatures can reach 30 °C (86 °F) and can plummet to 7 °C (45 °F) at night. Winter is especially harsh as it can drop to below freezing temperatures.

As is typical with rodents, Chinchillas are crepuscular, or active during twilight hours. They are very social and gregarious animals and prefer living in groups (called "herds"). Breeding season is from November to May in the Northern Hemisphere and May to November in the Southern Hemisphere. Males and females typically have amicable relationships, and thus rarely fight during the season. Unusual for mammals, chinchillas have a matriarchal social structure.

A domesticated chinchilla running across the carpet .Photo by User Trurl66.

Trivia

• Her redesign's release correlates with 2020 being the Year of the Rat, as she is a rodent.
• The gray and blue in her eyes seems to be a case of Sectoral heterochromia.
• It is one of two species in the genus, the other being the Short-tailed Chinchilla.
• The long-tailed Chinchilla's karyotype (chromosome sets) has 2n = 64 and FN = 126.
• There are over 30 recognized coat color variants.
• Three different types of domestic chinchilla are commonly recognized: la plata, costina, and raton.
• Chinchillas require a dust bath at least twice a week in fine volcanic ash. They like to play and roll in the dust.

References

• Wikipedia Page
• Woods, C.A.; Kilpatrick, C.W. (2005). "Infraorder Hystricognathi". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1550. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
• Donnelly, Thomas M. "Chinchillas - Exotic and Laboratory Animals". Merck Veterinary Manual. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
• Bennett, E.T. (1835). "On the Chinchillidae, a family of herbivorous Rodentia, and on a new genus referrible [sic] to it". Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. 1: 35–64. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1835.tb00602.x.
• Spotorno, Angel E.; Zuleta, C.A.; Valladares, J.P.; Deane, A.L.; Jiménez, J.E. (15 December 2004). "Chinchilla laniger". Mammalian Species. 758: 1–9. doi:10.1644/758. PDF Archived 2010-12-05 at the Wayback Machine